The Metro Nashville Board of Education is slated to vote tonight on whether to bring a lawsuit against the state over the Basic Education Program, which is the state's formula used to determine funding.
Other school districts, including Hamilton County Schools and Shelby County Schools, filed lawsuits in the past year alleging the state is severely underfunding districts.
While the other districts' lawsuits are more broad, in Nashville the lawsuit would be tied to the funding ratio associated with the English Language Learners program.
In an exchange between Metro Legal's Jon Cooper and Maryanne Durski, executive director of local finance with the Tennessee Department of Education, Cooper asks why the state isn't funding ELL at the levels outlined in Tennessee Code. In Cooper's letter to the state, he outlines that ELL is currently being funded at an estimated ratio of 1 to 25 for teachers and 1 to 250 for translators.
The lawsuit, if the board votes to move forward with one, would argue that the state should follow code, which says that "funding shall be provided by the state at a ratio of 1:20 for teachers and 1:200 for translators."
In Durski's reply to Cooper, she agreed about the code and ratio he outlined, but she said another code says that "the changes in components or factors of the BEP implemented by this at shall be implemented in accordance with funding as made available through the general appropriations act."
In future years, Durski continues in the letter, ratios will be "reviewed against available funding" to determine whether changes might be made to "achieve the goal of funding ratios of 1:20 and 1:200."
District 7 school board member Will Pinkston says that could amount to about $3.7 million in lost funding for ELL students. More than 40 percent of students in District 7 are ELL students, and 24 percent of all students in the district face language barriers.
"In the scheme of things, that amount of money doesn't seem like a lot," Pinkston told Pith. "But every bit counts when you're working with ELL."
Mayor Megan Barry said in an emailed statement to Pith that she commended the school board for "seeking to use every tool available to them to ensure that our teachers have enough resources to provide a world-class education for our students."
"We have the opportunity to be a leader in the nation for providing high-quality ELL services for our students, but we need to ensure that the State of Tennessee is providing Davidson County with our fair share of tax dollars as required by law," Barry's statement read.
But House Education Instruction and Programs Committee member Rep. Bill Dunn (R-Knoxville) said the district should better allocate the funds it gets from the state.
"The state sends a lump sum of educational dollars to the [Local Education Agency]," Dunn said. "The school system then determines how they will divide it up. If Nashville thinks they need to spend more on the ELL program, then they have the power to direct funds that way. The state over the years has increased funding at a rate that far exceeds both population growth and inflation."
When the board meets tonight, it will also discuss 2016 charter school recommendations.
Update (7:24 p.m.): The board voted 6-0-2, with board members Mary Pierce and Elissa Kim abstaining, to bring a lawsuit against the state regarding ELL funding under the BEP formula.
